Shade and calibre: why you can’t order more tiles later

Once a batch is gone, the shade never comes back. How much to keep in reserve and what to do if it still runs out.

August 1, 2026

Porcelain tile boxes with the shade and calibre codes on the side

Tiles are ordered by the area from the drawings plus ten per cent. A month later the tiler makes a bad cut, a box runs short and another one is ordered. It arrives — and stays in the cupboard, because it can no longer be laid next to the first.

What shade and calibre are

Both are printed on the side of every box. People rarely read them until it is too late.

01 Shade Firing happens in batches, and the colour drifts from batch to batch. The factory sorts the tiles by shade and prints a code on the box. Neighbouring shades laid side by side read as a stain on the wall.
02 Calibre The actual size after firing. A 1200×600 tile comes out at 1198 one time and 1202 the next. Different calibres in one floor give a wandering joint.
03 Batch The production run number. Shade and calibre only match within one batch — this is the one line worth writing into the order itself.
04 Product code Collections last three or four years. After a year the code can still be supplied; after three it is discontinued and a replacement has to be hunted through warehouses.

The shade and calibre codes are on the side of the box. Copy them down before the boxes leave for the site.

How much to keep in reserve

Ten per cent is a figure from builders’ quotes, and on small formats it works. With large formats the maths is different: one 3200×1600 slab costs as much as twenty square metres of small tile, and “plus ten per cent” turns into a spare slab at fifteen hundred euros. Here we count the cutting piece by piece and add one slab per project — not a percentage, a slab.

What saves you from redoing the job is one spare box sitting on a shelf for three years.

What to copy from the delivery note

Parameter	Where to look	If it doesn’t match	What to do
Shade	code on the side	a stain on the wall	order within one batch
Calibre	code on the side	the joint wanders	cut to one calibre
Batch	delivery note	nothing is guaranteed	write the number into the order
Product code	delivery note	the collection gets discontinued	keep a spare box

Two boxes of the same product code, shades G and H. Apart, you cannot see the difference.

If it does run short

Call us first, not a marketplace. Factories keep the tail ends of batches, and for the first six months the chances of finding your shade are good. After that there are two options: take the neighbouring shade and move it into a separate area — a niche, a store cupboard, a bathroom — or relay the whole section.

And the cheapest thing you can do right now: photograph the side of the box before it is laid. Thirty seconds against a week of searching a year later.

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